Format wars happen every few years in every aspect of the technology world. Remember VHS vs Beta? Laserdisc vs DVD? This year’s format war happens to be HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray.
High Definition TV sales show no signs of slowing down, and while HD programming is becoming more prolific through satellite and cable subscribers, there’s still no dedicated content delivery system for movie buffs and computer nerds alike.
CDs and DVDs have to come from somewhere, but most people don’t realize from whom and their importance to such companies. Tech giants like Phillips, Toshiba and Sony are always competing with each other over the newest and best format of, well, anything really. With each format comes licensing fees. If a format becomes popular, then every manufacturer that uses said format has to pay royalties to whomever invented it.
This can have unfortunate consequences for the consumer. Average users usually have to ride out the waves of first generation hardware to see which format ends up winning. Early adopters run the risk of paying premium prices for “I had it first” bragging rights, only to have their chosen format tank in the coming years.
This year’s format focuses on bringing movies into your home theater in High-Definition (HD). The current DVD format has a resolution of just above a standard, non-HD set. And while some can upscale the DVD to HD resolutions, it just isn’t the same. The HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats look to remedy that.
HD-DVD was created by Toshiba, NEC and Sanyo. It consists of a single layer disc holding 15 gigabytes of data or a dual layer disc holding 30 gigsabytes. This is contrast to DVD’s 4.7 and 9 gigabytes. So far it’s non-exclusively backed by several major studios such as Paramount, Warner Brothers and Universal.
The Blu-Ray format is mainly spearheaded by Sony, but they are also joined by other manufacturers in the Blu-Ray Disc Association.
This format is capable of 25 gigabytes for single layer and 50 gigabytes for dual layer. It should be noted that both formats have announced future plans for higher capacity discs, but at the time these are the only confirmed capacities. They also have backing from major movie studios such as MGM, Warner Brothers and Fox.
Blu-Ray has a higher capacity, yet initial reports are showing that it’s harder than first thought to actually mass-manufacture these discs, and initial capacities may be lower than reported.
HD-DVD has already been proven and is already on the market. Players and several movies can be found at major retail outlets although they are reportedly in scarce supply.
Production costs are also cheaper for HD-DVD because the companies only have to make adjustments to existing machines.With Blu-Ray, all new machines must be ordered.
Both formats will be backward compatible with the DVD standard and will offer interactive versions of disc dubbed iHD-DVD and BD-J.
It’s likely that most studios will support both formats, which ends up being a bad thing because it splits the market for the consumer.
The biggest thing Blu-Ray has going for it will be the operating drive for the upcoming PS3, which will no doubt boost the Blu-Ray user-base tenfold.
Not to be outdone, however, Microsoft is offering an external HD-DVD add-on to the Xbox 360. The add-on should be available sometime this year.
If you’re worried about buying a DVD now and then having to re-buy it later, there might be a solution for you. Warner just introduced it’s first hybrid DVD/HD-DVD disc. It contains the HD-DVD version of the movie on one side and the DVD version on the opposite side. As of now it’s only Warner and the HD-DVD standard, but surely more companies will follow suit.
So, as usual it’s another muddy format war that, like an episode of “Lost,” ends up posing more questions than giving answers. Late last year, the standards almost merged, but talks broke down. So for now it looks like we’ll have to head to the format war fall-out shelter and eat canned veggies and drink powdered milk until a victor is declared.